News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-12-29
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TAI.HAGE's
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: TOO Much Ado About
Small Things"

UttittJ yUtueS, CHICH SITUln uC
a gndt and SeCdLlol0 q cameLr'-Matt. xiii,
A proverb is compact wisdom, knowledge
in chunks, library in sentence, the elec-
tlcIty OF many clouds discharged in one bolt,
river put through a mill race. When Christ
quotes the prover0 of the text He means to
set forth the ludicrous behavior of those who
make great bluster about small sins and
have no appreciation of great ones.
In my text a small insect and large quad
rured are brought into comparison-a gnat
and a camel You have in museum or on the
desert seen the latter, a great awkward,
sprawllng creature, with back two stories
high, and stomach having q collection of
reservoirs for desert travel, an animal for
bldden to the Jews as food, and in many
llteratureS entitled ''the ship of the desert 81
The gnat spoken of in the text is in the grub
form. 1t is born in pool or pond after a few
weeks becomes chrysalis, and then after a
few days becomes the gnat as We recognize
it. 1t IS in its smallest shape, and yet inhabits
the water-for my text is q misprint, and
ought to read, strain out gnat"
My text shows you the Prince of inconsis-
tencies. A man after long Observat.o on has
formed the suspicion that in a cup of water
he is about to drink there is a grub or the
grand parent of gnat He goes and gets a
sieve or strainer. He takes the water and
pOurs it through the sieve in the broad light.
He says: Il would rather do anything almost
than drink this water until this Iarva be ex-
trpated." This water is brought under in
qulsitlon. The experiment is successful The
water rushes through the sieve and leaves
against the side of the sieve the grub or gnat
Then the man carefully removes the insect
and drinks the water in placidity. But going
out one day, and hungry he devours ''Ship
OF the desert, the camel, which the Jews
were forbidden to eat The gastronomer has
TO compunctions of conscience. He suffers
from no Indigestion. He puts the lower law
under the camcfs fore foot, and his upper
jaw over the hump of the camels back, and
gives one swallow and the dromedary disap-
pears forever. He strained out gnat ne
swallowed a camel
While Christ's audience were vet smiling at
the appos,teneSS and wit of his illustration
for smile they did in church unless they were
too stupid to understand the hyperboIe-
Christ practi ally said to them: THAT is
you" Punctilious about small Things; reck-
less about affairs of great magnitude No
subject ever withered under a surgeons knife
more bitterly than did the Pharisaes under
Christ's scalpel of truth. As an anatomist
vii! take human Eody to pieces and put
them under a microscope for examination. so
Christ finds His way to the heart of the dead
Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it under the
glass of inspection for all generations to ex-
anime. Those PhaIisees thought that Christ
would flatter them and compliment them,
and how they must have writhe1 under the
redhot words as he said: eye fools, We whited
sepuchres ye blind guides, which strain out
a gnat and swallow camel.n
There are i'll our day a great many Cnats
strained out and great many camels swal-
lowed, and it is the object of this sermon to
sketch few persons who are extensively en-
gagged i'll that business
FIRST 1 remark that ali those minister's of
the Gospel are photographed in the text who
are very scrupulous about the conventionali-
ties of religion, but put no particular stress
upon matters of vast Importance. Church
tO nT,1s cola
is no room for frivOlity in religious conyoco~
ton. But there are illustrations and there
are hyperboles like that of Christ in the ia "
that will lrradiate with smiles any intelIi.
gent auditory. There are men like those blind
guides of the text who advocate only those
things in religious service which draw the
corners Of the mouth down. and deuouuce al
those things which have a tendency to draw
the corners of the mouth up, and these men
will 20 to installations and to presbyteries
AMI to con ferenCeS and to associations, their
pockets full of fine sieycs TO strain out the
rnats while in their own churches at home
every Sunday there are fifty people sound
aseep. They make their churches great
dormitory, and their somniferOus sermons
are a cradle, and the drawlet out hymns
ulIaby while some Waleful soul in pew
with her fan keeps the flies off unconscious
persons approximate Now, / say it is worse
to sleep in church than to smile in church,
for tie latter implies at least attention,
while the former implies the Indifference of
In old age, or from physical infirmity, or
from long watching with the sick, drOw
siuess will sometimes oyerpOwer one
but when n minister of the Gospel
looks OF upon an audience and finds
healthy and intelligent people struggling with
it is time for him to give out the
or pronOunce the benediction. The
great fault of church services to day is not
too much givacity, but too much SOM
no'ence. The one is an irritating gnat
80. Dt1, -
a great, sprawling and sleepyeyed camel of
Sne dry desert. In all our Sabbath-schools,
in all our Bible classes, in all our pulplts, we
nee1 to brighten up our religious message
with such Chrlst-like vivacitv as we find in
the text
l take down from my library the biogra
phieS of ministers and writers of past ages,
Inspired ami uninspircd, who have done the
most to bring souls to Jesus Christ, and ]
find that without single exception, they con
sccrate1 their wit and their humor to Christ
Elijah used it when he advised the Baalites
as they could not make their God respond,
telling them to call louder, as their God
might be sound asleep or gone a-huntlng:
JOB used it when he said to his self-concelted
comforterS: ''Wis lon will die with you.
Christ not only usel it in the text, but when
He ironically comphmented the putreneu
PhariseeS, saying: "The whole need not
physician and when by one word He de-
We, and tell that fox Matthew Henrys
from the first page to the
last coruscated with humor as summer
clouds with heat and lightning. John Bun
vans writings are as full OF humor as they
are of saving truth, and there is not an aged
man here who has ever read g Pilgrims Pro-
gresS" who does not remember that while
reading it he smiled as often as he wept
Chrysostom. George Herbert, Robert South,
John Wesley, George Whiteheld, Jeremy
TAYLOR, Rowland Hill, George &. Finpey and
all men of the past who greatly advanced
the kingdom of God consecrated their wit
and their humor to the cause of Christ. 80
it has been in all the ages, and say to these
young theological students, who cluster IN
these services Sabbath by Sabbath, sharpen
your wits as keen as cimeters and then take
them into this holy war.
Ii is q very short bridge between a smile
and tear, suspension bridge from eye to
lip, and it is soon crossed over, and smile IS
sometimes just as sacred as tear: Ihere IS
as much religion, and L think little more,
in a spring morning than in starleSS md
night Religious work without any humor
or wit in it is banquet with a side OF beef,
and that raw, and no condiments, ana no
dessert succeeding. People Will not sit down
at such a banquet By all means remove all
frivolity and all bathos and all lightneSs ana
all vulgarity-st them out through the
sieve of holy discrimination; but, on the
Other mana, beware Ol bildS nlOhStSl " tioi
overShadowS the Christian church to-day,
conventionality, coming up from the Great
S hara desert of ecclesiasticism, having ON
its back hump of sanctimonious gloom, and
vehemently refuse to swallow that camel
Oh, how particular great many people
are about the infiniteSmals while they are
quite reckless abont the magnitudes What
did Christ say! Did he not eXcOriate the
people in His time who We're 50 careful TO
wash their hands before meal but did not
wash their hearts! 1t is a bad thing to
have unclean hands: it is a worse thing to
have an unclean heart. How many people
there are in our time who are very anxious
that after their death they shall be buried
with their feet toward the east and not at all
anxious that during their whole life they
should face in the right direction SO that they
shall come up i'll the resurrection OF the just
whichever way they are buried. How many
there are chiefly anxious that minister OF
the Gospel shall come in the line of apostolic
succession, not caring so much whether he
comes from Apostle Paul or Apostle Judas.
They have way of measuring gnat until
it is larger than camel
Again: My subject photographs all those
who are abhOrrent of small sins, while they
are reckless in regard to magnificent theftS.
You will find many a merchant who, while
he is so careful that he would not take yard
of cloth or a spool OF cotton from the counter
without paying for it, and who, if bank
cashier should make mistake and seni in a
roll OF bills 50 too much, would dispatch a
messenger in hot haste to return the surplus,
vet who viii so into q stock company i'll
which, after while, he gets control of the
stock, and then waters the stock and MAKES
SlOJ,OlO appear like S21O,OOO. He only
stole 100000 by the operation. Many of